German GP 2012 Qualifying – Lotus F1: “A frustrating session”

After demonstrating a promisingly brisk car in dry conditions, Kimi Räikkönen claimed tenth position during a rain afflicted qualifying session for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix.

His teammate Romain Grosjean was fifteenth fastest but will start in twentieth position due to a penalty for a gearbox change. Qualifying was a frustrating session for the Lotus team. In the dry they looked to be comfortably one of the quickest cars out there, but as soon as it rained things quickly turned around and they really struggled with both cars. Now it would be a good time to investigate why E20 was unable to extract any pace at the crucial time today.

Kimi Räikkönen: “We weren’t fast in the wet today for some reason and we need to look at why that was. I wasn’t able to get any grip from the tyres, even when we tried a fresh set of wets half way through the final qualifying session. In the dry the car is very good and in the races our car usually has strong pace. Let’s hope for some dry weather tomorrow and see what happens.”

Romain Grosjean: “The rain seemed to come at the wrong time for me ; it always was at its heaviest when I was trying to go for a quick lap. It was certainly difficult out there to find enough grip and not to get held up by other cars. It’s difficult to understand why I was so far behind Kimi in qualifying when I’ve been very close to him during the rest of the weekend. I’ve got it all to do tomorrow and I’ll be working hard with my engineers to ensure we’ve got the quickest car and the best strategy to go for some points.”

Source: Lotus F1 Team

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